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Monday, August 29, 2016

Pincher Creek Town Council approves letter of support for ABSW

Toni Lucas - At the regular meeting of Pincher Creek's Town Council on on Monday, August 22 council agreed to approve a letter of support drafted by the Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance (ABSW) Rural Broadband Strategy initiative. The letter is to go to the Honourable Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Navdeep Bains in support of funding for rural Alberta communities broadband connectivity. The group has contacted a number of municipalities urging them each to draft a similar letter on their letterhead explaining the facts about their own community. ABSW requested a copy of this letter be sent to Foothills MP John Barlow, other Ministers, and other communities that are partners in ABSW.

The letter reads in part; "And while we may live outside urban centres, like all Albertans, we need fast, reliable, affordable internet service in order to be able to run our businesses and farms, build new businesses, learn and connect to the rest of the country and the outside world."

ABSW explains in their communication that the reason for the letter is federal funding has been announced for connectivity, but very little has been received in the province. The strategy proposed by the regional alliance is to engage all of the municipal members in a campaign to inform the Federal Government what broadband connectivity means to rural Alberta.